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51 6 Make Way for Democracy! Americans were appalled that the French would disapprove of the immediate and complete removal of bodies from all regions. Newspaper editorials and congressional debates reflected the indignant spirit of impatience, such as that of representative Clement C. Dickinson of Missouri, who addressed the House: “The French Government will not refuse to do what this Government asks and urges to be done; to refuse would be an unfriendly or hostile act.”1 Under renewed pressure, the War Department continued to appeal to the French government to modify its restrictive policy throughout most of 1919. While awaiting further policy guidance, the Grs continued its work of locating, consolidating, and reburying the dead. earlier procedures that assigned burial responsibility to regimental units and forbade the shipment of embalming supplies or coffins now had grim consequences. The task of preserving identity and grave locations within the battle zone had been particularly difficult since the war dead were frequently given only a simple, hastily marked burial that did not withstand enemy fire. This experience was true of all armies.2 equally troublesome to the Grs were those graves that had been dug to accommodate multiple bodies in the same trench without individual identity markings. Normally, the dead were buried in blankets wearing an identification tag and lain beneath a cross bearing their name, but circumstance and necessity often complicated an all-too-hasty burial process. After the war, the army’s surgeon general wrote that burial of the dead was a “painful duty” that became a serious sanitary problem during battle, one closely connected to questions of morale. Acknowledging that although prompt burial of the dead was essential, he explained that combat line troops could not be spared from the front for this purpose during the fighting. After battle, these soldiers were so “mentally and physically exhausted” that seeing “evidence of the recent engagement” had a depressing effect on them.3 The intolerable conditions of warfare during the 52 Make Way for Democracy! summer of 1918 were intensified by the horrific sights such as those in Fere-en-tardenois, where troops advanced in the midst of dead bodies of men and animals strewn over the terrain. Many had lain on the ground for ten days or longer during the intense fighting, and the “stench from these bodies was intolerable.” Dead horses lay at short intervals along the way, many having died from exhaustion. The weather was hot and the bodies of both men and animals had become black, swollen, disorganized masses of organic matter , alive with maggots. Flies bred in millions and soon became an intolerable nuisance as well as a more or less serious menace to health. other insanitary conditions existed, and there was much reason to apprehend an outbreak of intestinal diseases.4 The effect on the esprit of troops must have been a challenge to military commanders, particularly to the corps surgeon, who requested that five hundred men be assigned directly to his corps for the sole purpose of burying the dead. He suggested that these men work with the Grs so that proper identification and care of the personal effects of the deceased might be assured. This appeal was disapproved at general headquarters, but when the surgeon resubmitted another request that Pioneer infantry be allotted for this purpose, the recommendation was approved and thereafter became the norm. These men apparently performed their work so well that similar conditions never occurred again, but in giving of their service to this arduous work, often performed so close to the front, the living lost their own lives on several occasions. Within the U.s. Army, as in other armies, the lines of advance were so close together, with fighting taking place in the same spot for days at a time, that it was not unusual for graves to be opened repeatedly by shell fire and for burial parties to be hit in the process of their duty. orders strictly prohibited burials in remote, inaccessible places or sites of unsuitable drainage, but the circumstances of battle were frequently such that any available location might be used for temporary burials. Following the cessation of war, a complete rechecking of all graves in France was made so that isolated burials could be assembled into large cemeteries “where maintenance would be simpler and the location not forgotten.”5 The postwar concentration of dead was itself a process prone to confusion and chaos as bodies were often exhumed several times and relocated miles...

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